Jim McElwain doesn’t feel need to de-recruit Florida’s freshmen group

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — When incoming freshmen report to campus for summer enrollment, their star ratings and recruiting hype go out the window.

The Florida football team welcomed 13 new players to the practice field Wednesday for the start of fall camp. McElwain said there wasn’t a lot of de-recruiting that needed to happen.

“I don’t see that with this group,” McElwain said. “There wasn’t any guys out there prancing around think that they own the joint. They were just trying to get lined up, and that’s a good thing.”

McElwain singled out true freshmen offensive linemen Brett Heggie and Jawaan Taylor for their play on the first day.

“I will tell you this, I was impressed with (Taylor),” McElwain said. “I was impressed with Brett Heggie taking control, especially with not being here just having the summer. I thought that was good up front.

Althought defensive line coach Chris Rumph was not pleased with how his young group started practice, McElwain liked what he saw from former 5-star defensive end Antonneous Clayton.

“I am really glad I wasn’t the open end tackle trying to protect against the guy,” McElwain said. “In some of the drills we had to pull the reigns (on Clayton) a little bit. The guy just loves football. You can tell when he gets out there. He has a great personality.”

Zach Abolverdi is the Florida beat writer for SEC Country and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.